Apparatus are known for mechanically processing food stuffs. The mechanical processing of a food stuff includes the operation of slicing, chopping, cutting, dicing, mincing, shredding, crushing or grating. Such an apparatus generally forms part of a food processor for use as a domestic appliance and includes a container to which the apparatus is mounted to receive a processed food stuff, and a base unit on which the container and apparatus are removably disposed. A drive unit is disposed in the base unit to drive the apparatus.
One such apparatus for processing a food stuff is a dicing unit which cuts a food stuff into cubes. Such an apparatus generally comprises a housing with a stationary cutting die having knives arranged in a grid fixedly mounted to the housing, and a cutting tool comprising cutting blades mounted in a solid disc which is rotatably mounted in the housing and driven by the drive unit. The stationary cutting die is disposed perpendicular to the rotational axis of the cutting tool so that the or each cutting blade moves over the stationary cutting die parallel to, but spaced from, the die as the cutting tool is rotated to slice a food stuff disposed between the or each blade and the stationary die. A wedge element is mounted along the cutting blade which urges a food stuff cut by the cutting blade against and through the stationary cutting die so that the food stuff is diced.
However, one problem with the above arrangement is that the cutting tool is in constant contact with a food stuff fed into the housing as it rotates. Therefore, a large torque is required to maintain an adequate rotational speed of the cutting tool to cut the food stuff to prevent the apparatus from stopping during use.